About the Public Areas:

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Furniture jaded and dining room seats stained and worn at edges.

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About the Food:

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...food in the main dining room is very average and consisted of very small portions... Allow 2 hours for your meal as the waiter can only turn in whole table orders and dispense them course by course. Menus are "dogeared" and creased and clearly recycled every week based on the same output from the galley.

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About the Cabin:

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...hot and cold water was discoloured with a brown sediment....the Engineers reply was that there was some iron in the pipes that they couldn't do anything about!

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Full review is here.

Is this just another example of an overly picky passenger or is Celebrity "slipping"?

As far as food goes, ask a hundred people and get a hundred answers. It's very subjective and what other people say doesn't mean much. It only matters if *you* enjoyed the food.

I cruised Celebrity ‘Mercury’ in 1998. Everyone was of the opinion that the dining room food was wonderful, except me and Mrs. M – but then again we have British ‘pallets’!

The Buffets for Lunch are not of the same expensive Items, as in former Years and the Lunch in the Dining Room is not as good, as 21 Years before on the Victoria of Chandris.

At that Time, Lunch and Dinner are equal, nowadays Dinner is the Main Dining Event of the Day, the others are not so excellent.

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except me and Mrs. M – but then again we have British ‘pallets’!

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Odd, when I was very disappointed in the food on our Nov 02 Zenith Cape Horn cruise, I assumed it was because the food was being aimed at South Americans and Europeans (there were a lot of both on board). I only really enjoyed a couple of the 12 dinners. Mostly the main courses seemed to consist of large slabs of bland, dry beef or lamb or pork. Very little seafood, and what there was wasn't very good. I really could have used the Princess "Always Available" menu. On my 2 Princess cruises since then, I haven't needed it. Oh, well.

Food was quite good. Some items missing a bit of flavor, or strangely spiced, but clearly they were trying to give the best possible. Cuts of meat were very good and the alternative dining and buffets were really excellent. They even had a nice Sushi bar setup every evening. Thing that most impressed me was passed hot and cold hors d'ouerves in the late evening instead of a buffet. Very classy and I am sure an overall money saver.

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Originally posted by JP:

Odd, when I was very disappointed in the food on our Nov 02 Zenith Cape Horn cruise, I assumed it was because the food was being aimed at South Americans and Europeans...

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I can't speak for your cruise, but mine has plenty of 'Prime Rib' and 'Lobster Tails' on offer, neither of which are British dishes.

Having lived aboard cruise ships for 13 years with 20+ nationalities aboard, it was refreshing to see how well we all worked together and our cultural differences were far low on our priorities. If it were not for my days at sea, I would have never learned to enjoy Thai food, Indian curry, German brats, Scandinavian soft ice, English Christmas pudding.....

I would think the avid cruisers who follow these boards would relish that onboard diversity, and perhaps take some of that home.

Cuise Lines are businesses who strive to please as many people as possible. It is a simple business practice...cater to the majority of your customers. If the majority of your customers have a preference, then that will be the focus. I also believe, unlike most any other service industry, cruise lines make an extraordinary effort to please individual tastes. Yet so many are disgruntled that their preferences were not the focus of the product delivery.

If someone chooses a product that is clearly marketed to a clientel they are not part of, expect and hopefully embrace the targeted product. Positive focus will make any cruise (and life, in my opinion) a happier place & experience. We all cherish our cultures and homelands, and we are all guilty of pointing fingers, we are human. But "when in Rome.....do as the Romans" or as my Father's take on the cliche... "If you don't like Romans....don't go there."

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Originally posted by TampaMike:
I am repeatedly surprised by the cultural barbs posted on this board, usually referring to nationality.

Having lived aboard cruise ships for 13 years with 20+ nationalities aboard, it was refreshing to see how well we all worked together and our cultural differences were far low on our priorities........................ If someone chooses a product that is clearly marketed to a clientel they are not part of, expect and hopefully embrace the targeted product. Positive focus will make any cruise (and life, in my opinion) a happier place & experience. We all cherish our cultures and homelands, and we are all guilty of pointing fingers, we are human. But "when in Rome.....do as the Romans" or as my Father's take on the cliche... "If you don't like Romans....don't go there."

Happy Sailing.

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My QE2 crossing had 1000 Americans, 400 Brits, 90 Germans, 50 French, and rest from all over.

There were German, and French speaking social hosts. I understand Pullmantours has English speaking social hosts on their ships.

We were on the Summit in May (Southern Caribbean). It was our fourth consecutive Celebrity cruise and it will be our last for the forseeable future.

While we enjoyed our Concierge Class cabin, I honestly can't say whether we got value for the extra cost. But that's not the issue. The issue is, as Mr. Watt pointed out, the feeling that Celebrity is, at best, coasting. Yes the menus are tattered, but more importantly the line is serving the same food on the same night on all its 10 day cruises and the menu hasn't changed in three years! And to say the food is anything more than good banquet cuisine would be stretching it.

Our wine steward was charming but stretched beyond belief. Also, while she knew all of the buzz words, I remain unconvinced that she knew a Burgundy from a Bordeau.

In the buffet, the waiters would stand around talking to each other and blatantly ignored the passengers, many of them elderly, struggling with their trays.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

I can't speak for your cruise, but mine has plenty of 'Prime Rib' and 'Lobster Tails' on offer, neither of which are British dishes.

In general the food was too fancy for my tastes with too many rich sauces and big enpty plates! Yet, the American's onboard seem to love it?

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What do you want, Malcolm? Pub food every night? Because, as we all know, the majority of "traditional British" food is considered by many to be synonymous with blandness and/or lard (even though I like much of it).

Too fancy? Rich sauces? Better stay away from French restaurants.

[ 07-09-2004: Message edited by: CGT ]

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Originally posted by TampaMike:

I would think the avid cruisers who follow these boards would relish that onboard diversity, and perhaps take some of that home.

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I'm personally completely sick of the whole Politically Correct "Diversity" crap. I'm actually sick of Political Correctness in general. That's my opinion.

[ 07-09-2004: Message edited by: CGT ]

In September/October 1979, my ship the PRESIDENT WILSON, a 12 passenger general cargo ship, docked in Tanjaing (spelling?) which is the main port for Tientsin and Beijing. This was the old port called Taku in the Gulf of Pohai. (I'm sorry I do not have familiarity with the current method of spelling Chinese names.) This was before full relations between the U.S. and China were re-established. We had about 6,000 tons of Mexican cotton to discharge and were in port for about six days.

Our company hosted two major banquets, one in Tientsin and one in Beijing, in honor of the ship calling at that port, which was the first U.S. flag ship calling there for 30 years. Some company officials and the Master, Chief Officer and I hosted tables of about 10 people each. In attendence was the U.S. Ambassador Leonard Woodcock and his wife and Chinese officials of equal position. I have never seen such wonderful banquets before or since. They were 20+ course meals taking 3 hours or more to complete. Obviously, there was a great deal of toasting, both with wine and "mao-tai". (Love that Mao-tai, which seemed to be a mix of gin, saki, and 100 octane gasoline!) There were dishes that I had no idea of but needless to say, were the finest Chinese cuisine I have ever had.

I was able to spend 4 more days in Beijing with our passengers and hosts and on one of them we all went to the ultimate!! A Peking Duck restaurant in Peking! You can't get more authentic than that! While there, savoring all the dishes, each of which consisted of part (or parts) of the duck, I spotted one small plate that looked like a different style of "good old potato chips." I felt like I needed a quick "Yankee food break" so I reached over with my chopsticks and took one (hmmm. pretty thick though, I thought.) Anyway, I popped it into my mouth and crunched down on it. At that time I realized two things: 1. I was going to have to save face and get this mouthfull down gracefully and 2. That the Peking Duck restaurant did in fact use every part of the duck in the meal! What I thought was my potato chip was in fact the duck's foot!! Yes, I did get it down, well, ....maybe not gracefully, but with the help of a bit more mao-tai and a lot of the great Chinese beer, well enough to "smack my lips", smile, and comment on how good that was!

Great times, those.

Jerry

[ 07-10-2004: Message edited by: nevadaflip ]

[ 07-10-2004: Message edited by: nevadaflip ]